Thursday, May 3, 2012

My class is studying butterflies and ladybugs. We ordered larvae for each one through Insect Lore. My students are flying in the door and rushing to my desk first thing each day to check on the development of the insects. Every five days, they are documenting what changes have been happening. It is really neat to hear the things they notice about how the insects are changing. One of the five butterfly larvae that I have was a lot younger than the others. It is still munching around on the food floor while the others are on their way to a beautiful transformation up in their chrysalis. I seriously hope that when I get to school tomorrow, that last one has hitched itself up there! I want to get them into the butterfly habitat this week.If you haven't ever watched a Painted Lady come out of a chrysalis, it is pretty amazing! A reddish liquid pops out with the butterfly and leaves a stain under or next to where it opened. It never fails to happen that one student will walk by and exclaim, "Oh no, the butterfly is BLEEDING!!!!!"You won't believe what happened one year. We painstakingly watched larvae morph into five beautiful butterflies. The children were so attached to them, they didn't want to let them go. It was time. We went out to the back of the school near a wide open field. In a way, it was sort of magical how one by one, the butterflies found the opening and flew up and hovered close by before taking off, upward and outward. All of a sudden, from the dark shadows of the nearby pine trees, a hawk came swooping down and chowed the butterflies in a line like a Pac-Man eating up dots!!!! My class froze. Then all 22 of them took off in different directions screaming their heads off! Sad to say, the next science lesson had to be The Food Chain! Years later, they still come up to me and talk about it, only they kind of laugh at the incredulous possibility of it ever even happening!In getting ready for the butterflies to hatch this year, I came up with a project for each student to design what they think the butterflies might look like when they hatch. I cut poster board into 11x14 rectangles and covered them with foil. I then drew a few renditions of a butterfly body. They took black Sharpie markers and drew various shapes on the wings. I tried to explain the fact that what you draw on one side had to be on the other side. Some students got it, most did not. They were then allowed to use any color other than black to fill in the shapes. They came out beautiful! Do you think I should leave them as is, or should I cut them out and mat them on black paper? I plan to hang them up at Open House.

ALSO: I am participating in the Teacher Appreciation Week sale at TpT this weekend! I am offering a 20% off sale, plus, if you add in the promo code listed on the graphic, your total savings can be 28%! Click on the picture and it will take you to my store. The sale begins on May 6th and goes through May 8th.

I have over 30 items in my store. Here are front covers from a few of them. You will be happy to find that many of my items in the store are free as well!